For about fifteen years, Rignault was cast in works by Nicolas Gogol, Marcel Achard and Jules Romains, and participated in the creation of three plays by Jean Giraudoux: Amphitryon 38 (1929), Intermezzo (1933), at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées, and Ondine (1939) at the Théâtre de l'Athénée.

For his film debut in 1931, he played the art critic Langelard in Jean Renoir's La Chienne, a social drama with Janie Marèse and Michel Simon.

Rignault, although he never had leading roles, happily played all sorts of jobs on screen: foreman, innkeeper, postman, policeman, doctor, gamekeeper, priest, notary, sharecropper, barker, peasant, etc.

He became known to the general public in 1937, playing King Henry VIII in Christian-Jaque's François Ier, starring Fernandel.

He played, among others, Count Robert de Clermont in Les Rois maudits (1972) by Claude Barma and the patriarch Gregor Kovalic in the Châteauvallon saga (1985), a role that closed his prolific career.